Coding House - CLOSED

From stepping through the front door at Coding House I was made to feel welcome in my new home. Sarah, always friendly and hospitable, greeted me and gave me a tour, took any dietary requests and put me at ease.

The provision of both food and accommodation... Read More is particularly ideal for those who are new to the Bay Area, or even (like me), new to the country.

Packed days of gaining relevant employable skills hand-in-hand with building a portfolio of projects kept us busy until late in the evening. The live-in TAs got to know us really well and were able to provide tailored support even at the most unsociable hours.

Coding House really was an intellectual bootcamp. There were overwhelming moments when I didn’t know how I’d be able to grasp all the new concepts. Nevertheless, with the help of the supportive staff I was able to complete the whole curriculum. The Coding House team consistently went above and beyond the basic curriculum to ensure that everyone to not only completed, but excelled.

The two months at coding house transformed my life. Every aspect of my time there has helped me along my new career path.

If you are thinking of applying to Coding House, do it! The slogan “change your life” is no exaggeration.

My experience at Coding House was not without its obstacles. Coming into an intensive coding bootcamp with limited background in the field was not an easy transition. However the live-in nature of Coding House allowed me to adapt quickly, soon dreaming... Read More about coding became thinking in code. Everyday during the course consists of constant hard work, both assigned and independent, however with the passion and enthusiasm for coding felt between the students, it is easy to stay positive and motivated throughout.

The instruction is clear and verbose covering many topics quickly while building on your knowledge to fully round out your education and cement a solid foundation needed to excel in the job market. While projects are assigned almost daily, there is endless room for creative exploration because finding new and clever ways to find and solve coding challenges is highly encouraged.

Overall my experience at Coding House was educational and positive, I went on to join the Resident program which is now coming to an end. I now feel confident to explore new and exciting technologies on my own and equipped with the tools and knowledge needed to enter the tech community in Silicon Valley as a junior Full Stack web developer. I would recommend it to anyone with a passion for programming and solving problems with a good attitude.

I recently completed the Coding House program and have been actively interviewing for four weeks. I had three offers this morning from different companies - all six figures and above (yes - $100,000+). I am accepting one of those now. I also turned down... Read More several other opportunities because they didn’t fit my career interest. This didn’t happen by chance and it certainly would not have been possible without the exceptional program I attended at Coding House.

For complete transparency I graduated college with a business degree, worked in the software industry (project management/account management side) for 5+ years, and completed multiple online certifications for various programming languages. I am telling you this not to brag (because this experience doesn’t mean anything) but to demonstrate these programs can benefit individuals who have a solid work/education background, as well as those wanting to make a career change.

Prior to Coding House I was making roughly $50,000. I was teaching myself programming on the side on platforms such as Pluralsight, Codecademy, and Code School. I also took took three classes at O’Reilly School of Tech. I can say from personal experience NO ONE can become a Jr. Developer in a reasonable time using these resources. These platforms teach you programming in a kiddie pool environment far away from real world environments. Try developing a production ready application after completing those courses - it isn’t possible for 99% of people. You don’t have professionals showing you the ropes of Version Control Systems, framework architecture, Test Driven Development, Design Driven Development, development tools, deployments to AWS, Digital Ocean, Heroku, and API integrations. Anyone who is claiming someone can make the transition with only using these educational resources is clearly uneducated on software development. Those individuals are so far disconnected from reality its laughable.

Making a transition into software development is far more complicated than taking a few free courses online. Programs such as Coding House (and several others) prepare their “students” for real world application development. Bootcamps are extremely intense and mentally exhausting. You have to be resilient and willing to make a million mistakes. Yes the reward can be great on the other side (great pay and work) but you have to be honest with yourself prior to attending a camp. 2 months is a short time for anything. You have to put in countless hours before and after the program. Nothing is going to be handed to you. Welcome to life - mommy and daddy will not be there to hold your hand. These camps provide a huge stepping stone that modern Computer Science programs are not providing. I am not saying CS programs are not worth time + investment because I have never attended such a program. CS programs and bootcamps are different on so many levels and have different goals.

My Accomplishments at Coding House:
-Accepted employment offer one month after program was complete
-Won 1st place at Launch 215 Hackathon building an application with Sabre Cord API
-Invited to speak with the CEO of Codecademy based on a blog post I wrote.
-Interviewed at PayPal and Apple and completed all final rounds of the interview process (and I turned all those offers down)
-Developed a mobile application that allows anyone to scan a barcode of a food product and know instantly if they are allergic to any ingredients.

Prior to coding house these accomplishments were not within my reach. I can honestly say I accomplished more in 2 months than would have been possible in a 18 month timeframe on my own. My money and time was well worth the investment.

What makes Coding House successful:
-Extensive pre-work prior to attending. I spent well over 200 hours or more dedicated to preparing myself for the program.
-One of the best damn instructors the industry has to offer. I have worked with very talented developers throughout my career and this instructor is top notch. He can teach, coach, challenge, and push you to your limits.
-The curriculum (Javascript Stack) builds extremely well and allows for great progression
-No others worries but coding and collaborating with other students
-Application based learning with a solid portfolio to display at the end of the program

So what does this mean? Bootcamps are what you make of them. Are they perfect? No. But they can help propel you in many different directions for your career. Anything worth pursuing is difficult and a lot of people will fail achieving it. I swam for 4 years as a NCAA Division I athlete (again -this isn’t too brag). 20 of us started as Freshman, and 4 of us completed our Senior year. Why? Because it was hard and demanding. Bootcamps are the same. They are hard and require 110% dedication to achieving your goals. The weak will fail and blame everyone around them for it. Those people are everywhere and it’s sad they can’t take ownership for their own failures. The tough will succeed and continue to push the limits of education and software development.

All of the reviews on this site are fake. Anyone who ACTUALLY was in the program will know what nonsense these reviews are.

Not to mention look at the dates, it's so obvious this is damage control. This program is a complete SCAM and the owners are basically... Read More criminals, just trying to scam and steal from people who don't know any better.

BUYER BEWARE.

Proper Preparation Prevents Poor Performance, the 5 Ps model I go by, and Coding House has provided me with all of that. When I first came to Coding House, I was like any other typical 4 year CS college student with tons of book knowledge, but unable... Read More to perform when asked to do it simply because I didn’t know how. I was fed up with following the typical CS track in school and blindly sending out resumes and hope for the best. So I made a decision and that landed me in Coding House, a short 12-week boot camp with an extraordinary
unforgettable experience.

First, Coding House provided structure, and that meant we had a routine schedule where from morning to afternoon it was either a workshop to learn a new tool(s), language, framework, or go over a project we built. Next we would have a delicious lunch made by our Cook Sarah who never ceased to amaze me with her different sets of cuisines. After lunch, we either continue to learn, or use what we’ve learned in the morning and start right away on a new project so we can get our hands dirty asap. From there, we would work until dinner, and dinner is just as amazing as lunch if not better! After dinner, it’s considered our own time, however, we are always given a homework project to do, whether individually or in small groups. The best part is that the projects we were given are always useful in some way, whether it is a simple matching memory game or a fully functional forecast weather app to display forecast for the next 10 days. There is always a purpose and everything we built small or big is considered our portfolio. Basically, there is no meaningless work.

Also, Let me add that the Coding House Staff really understands how and what works best for the students to learn, and for me who came in not knowing a lot, it was exactly what I needed. I wasn’t just a student to them, they really try and establish a long lasting relationship and care about my success when I walk out of here. That kind of commitment and relationship in any business nowadays is rare.

However, there are some drawbacks. One, there may be some dramas between students due to different cultural backgrounds or differences in opinions about certain topics. Two, the courses are taught in a very fast pace environment and missing even half a day of content can put you behind. Some students may not be ready for that kind of pace or pressure. So once you’re a bit behind, it can be hard to catch up as the pace hardly slows down. However, that feeling of always on the edge was the key to surviving and coming out successful. Along with the help of multiple TAs constantly available to “unstuck” your problems, the constant flow of moving forward is really what makes Coding House unique!

Overall, I could not be more thankful for stumbling upon Coding House, they really have become a second family and home to me. Nick, the Coding House Founder is by far one of the most caring, passionate, and intelligent individual I’ve ever met. He truly cares for your success, if there are any problems or feedbacks, he will sit down with you individually and work out a solution that caters to your needs. Not only I have gained a bunch of new friends, awesome mentors, but the priceless social wisdom, witty perks, and technical knowledge I have obtained in this 12 short weeks was definitely life changing.

To anyone who wants to create a bright future in the programming world, the best strategy to acquire all the knowledge necessary is definitely by being fully immersed in it. Coding House has definitely done that for me. There is no other place in the... Read More Silicon Valley where you can learn all the latest, and most relevant frameworks while getting access to the biggest technology companies in the world, all this without worrying about where to live. In my case, coming from Stockholm Sweden, where I was residing for the past 7 years, it was a no-brainer that Coding House was the way to go.

A little bit about my background, I’m originally from Togo West-Africa and I immigrated to the United States 16 years ago. I’m also a US Navy veteran with 8 years in the service, and I worked in all kinds of fields in construction. I was an electrician, a plumber, carpenter, contractor for cable installation, fiber technician, musician, songwriter, and a few more. I’m by nature a handy person, and I like to fix problems. As time went by I got married to my beautiful wife Isabelle, and we now have three beautiful children. For the past few years I have been mainly just working to make ends meat. I recently came up with the resolution that I really wanted to create things that could benefit myself, and the world around me. Even though I finished my bachelor in engineering management, I was not satisfied with my practical knowledge in coding. I have always been passionate with technology so I gradually started reading up on coding courses online when I stumbled on the Coding House website.

The program is designed to first figure out where your skill level is and then cater to your growth on the individual basis, making sure everyone gets all the necessary knowledge to pursuit their career in web development. During my time at Coding House, I developed many skills; one of them was the skill of learning how to learn. There is no way anyone can know it all in 12 weeks, but as we went through a great amount of frameworks, I’m now armed with the right tools to attack any task with confidence, and implement all the great ideas I have put on the shelves during these past years.

My name is Jose and I was in the cohort that started in January 2015 and ended April 2015. Before attending Coding House my only experience with programming was with iOS and some tutorials and courses from Treehouse. I decided to attend Coding House after... Read More deciding I wanted to make a career out of web development.

I applied to Coding House because I wanted to move to Silicon Valley and Coding House seemed to be the full package for my needs: housing, food and coding. As soon as I got to the house I felt at home, everyone at the house was very welcoming and helped me settle in. I am very grateful with Nick for really caring for the wellbeing and success of all of the students.

Coding House is not really for everyone, this program is intense and it covers in two months what other bootcamps cover in six months. You should prepare yourself before you come to the program, but if you complete the pre work you should be off to a good start. Once the program starts, expect to be deprived of sleep and to feel tired, but when you complete the different projects assigned you will feel everything was worth it. At the beginning of the program you will feel that you are not absorbing as much information as you want to, but it is normal and everyone feels that way at the beginning!

One of my favorite things about Coding House is the camaraderie that you build with the rest of the cohort; in a couple of days or weeks you build a great friendship with your classmates. There is no room for drama, since everyone is aiming for the same goal (LEARN!), everyone helps each other achieve that goal as a group and it really helps you learn faster. At Coding House (or any bootcamp), you won't become an expert coder, they will teach you the fundamentals and basics of programming and the current stack, but the most important thing you are going to learn is how to teach yourself new frameworks or languages and how to be self reliant. This is very important if you get stuck on a problem and you are alone you will be able to know how to debug yourself out of any trouble.

One of the "bad" moments during our cohort was the transition from one instructor to another after the first week. Even though the new instructor that came in is an excellent teacher, transitioning from one style of teaching to another took longer for a couple of the students. Now that the new instructor is settled in, I believe the program and it's topics are on par with some of the best bootcamps in the nation.

Coding House was a really great experience, it has it's good things and it's bad things just like any other bootcamp but the fact that they surround you with the environment, the tools and the resources to become a better developer make Coding House a great option for anyone venturing into a coding bootcamp.

In the interest of full disclosure, I currently work on a project on which members of the Coding House staff are advisors, so I am still related to Coding House in a business sense, but I think this is nearly inevitable in the highly inter-related field... Read More of technology.

My name is Richard and in October of 2014 I was a Shift Supervisor at Starbucks. I graduated from Coding House in December of 2014, now (January 2015) I am a fulltime software developer and making roughly 3-4x what I was at Starbucks, and of course, I’m only getting started. By March I will have completely paid off the expenses of Coding House and everything from there on out will be pure profit. It is with this in mind that I endorse Coding House, because for any flaws the fledgling bootcamp may have, it actually works if you try.
When I applied to Coding House, I had about six months of light coding experience. I had taken a web design class, so my HTML and CSS were okay, and I had been working maybe 10 hours a week as an intern on a hybrid app doing some light HTML/CSS/Javascript bug fixing, but not really writing a ton of code. I have a degree in philosophy, which I actually think helped when it comes to logic. Otherwise I was a bit of a coding neophyte.
Before I go into the details of the experience, I would like to talk about the kind of person who, in my opinion, should apply to Coding House. You should be very smart, the kind of person who, though you may not have gotten good grades, could have fairly easily if you’d tried. You should have a strong grasp on logic, even if you don’t have any formal training in it. You should be dedicated to succeeding, so for sixty days, when everyone else goes out to party in the City on Sunday, you are the one staying behind and studying until your eyes hurt or if a lesson goes on for hours, you don’t get distracted checking Facebook. Finally, and most importantly, you need to have a grasp of the fundamentals of programming. You should already have a fair understanding of HTML and CSS, at least some experience with Javascript and have shown an aptitude for it. You should know what a variable, a function and a method are and how they all fit together. If you don’t know these things, the first couple weeks will be rough if not impossible, and then you will fall behind. I’m not saying you need to understand the nuances of functional programming versus object oriented programming (I didn’t when I started), but everything in this school is based upon javascript and if you can’t wrap your head around that, then you simply can’t succeed. If you fit all of these qualifications, as I did, then please read on, Coding House is for you.
Let’s start with the good. Though it isn’t coding related, Sarah, the chef (who’s blog can be found here http://coders.kitchen/) is consistently awesome. She keeps enough healthy variety in the food to maintain lunch and dinner as a highlight of every day. She also keeps the fridge stocked with yogurt, fruit, hard boiled eggs, drinks and other snacks. I never went hungry, and also, by bringing my own protein powder and exercising every morning, I stayed in shape.
My favorite part of every day was the lectures. Samer, the professor, teaches hard and fast (there are only 60 days after all), but he keeps complex subjects practical and simple. He is generally open to adjusting the class to the student needs. The lessons vary in length but often you spend around 6 hours over the course of the day in workshops and even if some of them aren’t required, I recommend not missing a single one. You learn a new concept or framework in every one that will come back to haunt you later if you don’t pay attention. Also, do his homework, it isn’t “required” but it helps drive the concepts home.
Another great advantage that Coding House offers is the TAs. In particular, Aziz or another TA was available nearly around the clock to help me with my project, homework or general questions. There was almost always at least one TA who could help me figure out my issues, but failing that Samer could help every time. Even now, after graduating, I still have access to Coding House and it’s resources if I need help or just somewhere to code.
I think one of the best things about Coding House is that it gave me the chance I always needed. The chance to quit my job, cash in my stocks and lay everything on the line to succeed. It was a huge gamble, but after two months, I came away with a job, a lot more experience, and a good grasp on HOW to learn to code. It’s important to realize that Coding House will give you some fundamentals, it will expose you to plenty of concepts and frameworks, but the learning just starts at Coding House, the rest is up to you.
Okay, let’s do the bad. First, Coding House is new. Very new. I think it’s been around for about a year as of my graduating cohort, which means that they are still learning the best way to do things on their own. The school is still evolving and they do make mistakes. Halfway through my cohort they tried making lessons not-mandatory, which meant that some of the less motivated students learned less than they should have. They also tried a couple of different learning structures, one in which we learned a framework by building an app with it, and one in which we went over a high level discussion of its features. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t. Generally, if the lecture didn’t work for me, I would study the same thing over after lecture, using what I learned as a base to expand. The fact that Coding House is still developing, is ultimately a good thing. I believe it will only improve over time. I’m glad I was in the fourth cohort and not the first or second, because I read some unflattering things about those times, but I see them merely as growing pains and I have good reasons to believe that the nth cohort will be better than the nth - 1 cohort.
There are some employees or TAs that are not knowledgeable enough. You find this everywhere, some employees at a Starbucks know exactly how to make everything and some don’t. Coding House suffers this as well. The trick is, if a TA doesn’t know how to help you, just go to the one who does. In the end, this wasn’t a big issue because I could always find someone who could help.
Finally, the culture is hit and miss. I can only speak for my cohort on this one, but some of the people in my cohort were immature and not dedicated to learning coding. It’s all well and good to have fun, be crazy and occasionally be crass, but there is a time and a place, and sometimes that wasn’t clear. On the flip side, there were also awesome people who I think will be my friends for a long time to come, Coding House is your family for 60 days love ‘em or hate ‘em.
Coding House was a great experience. I learned more in those 60 days than I ever did in a whole year of college and most of it is directly applicable to what I am doing now. It was an enriching experience which gave me the chance to succeed that I needed. It is not without flaws, but I believe it will get better with time. Most importantly, I had a lot of fun, made some friends, got a job and I have the ongoing support of Coding House and their resources as I strike out on my own.

Last year, after many years of running the rat race, I decided to set upon a new trajectory. For me that meant my job search was now going to be a career search. And for me that meant being able to act upon and materialize all the “wouldn't it be cool... Read More if there was a..” ideas that were constantly popping up in my head every so often. Being able to design all those phone apps that I had come to use and find handy.

Like many others making the change, I had heard of various coding schools that had popped up the last couple of years and, fortunate to be living in the Bay Area, be at the epicenter as most were founded here. Searching around, many seemed narrow in their scope of frameworks and languages, putting all their eggs into one technological basket so to say. Given how rapid the changes and variety of frameworks used for a all the various startups and established companies out there, this didn't seem to be the best choice. Not to mention, the money I was going to be shelling out.

After much window shopping and seminars put on by the various coding schools, I attended one put on by Coding House. What struck me first was the variety of frameworks they were covering and in the given time span (60 days).

Right off the bat, I was surprised at how that would even be possible, given that other schools seemed to have a narrower scope and usually being a 90-120 day course. What I then realized was that this was a total immersion coding bootcamp, where we would move in to a house and live breathe and eat code. Already I was getting jazzed about the idea. When I saw the cost was a full $2k less, with a very reasonable financing plan and a money back guarantee if I didn't find a developer job, I knew I not only had zero excuses, but I would be a fool not to seize the opportunity.

So I did. I joined Coding House and moved into the house in Fremont. The full immersion aspect for coding to me was and still is the crucial difference in becoming a developer. Just like they say for any language, best way is to move to that country and speak it. In the exact manner, CodingHouse was the country and JavaScript our primary language. My focus was able to solely be directed towards coding while the CodingHouse staff takes care of all the daily activities (cooking, cleaning, etc.)

The other aspect to immersion that gets amplified was the presence of my fellow cohorts. Being surrounded in an environment where we are all moving towards the roughly same end goals is a huge plus, especially when entering a brand new field. For the roughly 16-18 hours each day we are coding, to have the support network around accelerated learning far more than just following along to an online tutorial, beneficial as it is.

Every day or two, you get introduced to a new framework, server or database that is usually followed up with an app written or using said techs. We would write the apps either together as a group or individually. With an instructor their to guide us along the way to give us suggestions and help, we were able to see the practical application of the new framework we had just learned.

In addition, as we are going 7 days a week, we usually spent our weekends at meetups or hackathons to further push our coding skills. The prizes were typically negligible for the most part, but the value for envisioning, implementing, creating, presenting (and, at times, winning) our applications was immeasurable.

Coding House runs efficiently and smoothly because of an incredible staff that I was fortunate in the two months there to get to know. The TAs there are former cohorts of the program who both work in industry and to mentor incoming cohorts in the program. Everyone from the founder (Nick) to the house manager (Sarah) to our lead instructor (Samer) to the Teaching Assistants (Aziz, Ben, etc.), are incredibly nice, always make themselves available and truly want to help you achieve your dream of becoming a web developer. At Coding House, they give you all the tools and support you will need to learn and be able to realize and materialize your ideas.

Without a doubt if I had to do this all again, I would hands down go with Coding House. For the cost, the variety and amount of course material and the immersive environment, the fluency and speed with which you code is well worth it.

Coding House: Fresh Start

Hello world, my name is Phillip Wright, and I am a Coding House graduate. Let me tell you a little bit about my experience. Like many other high school graduates, I tried the college route. I played sports and I went to class,... Read More and I found that this lifestyle did not work for my learning needs. So I decided to take a break. This break, before I knew it, stretched into four long years, with no increase in pay, though my work ethic showed that I deserved to make more money. I was lucky enough to encounter a friend who told me about Coding House, and the opportunities that I could gain from attending, so I decided to take a leap of faith. With a baby on the way.

The first difference between the collegiate experience and what I experienced at Coding House was that the academics were custom tailored to my needs as a student. I have struggled with attention difficulties since grade school, and the way that the Coding House was flexible enough for me to get up and move while learning and listening to lectures was monumental in my ability to maintain my attention. As a matter of fact, my cohort developed an application that would randomly select a person from the cohort and “assign” a number of push ups and pull ups for each to do. This physical activity was instrumental in helping all of us focus, and at the same time, keep up our physique. The instructors would sit with each of us and pair-program with us, allowing each of the students to have the questions answered that they needed answered. The assignments that were assigned included in-house Hackathons, which strengthened the attendees team building skills, and taught us to use each other’s strengths, yet still manage to work on individual weaknesses, so that we could complete large projects.

Coding House provided me with the foundational languages needed in order to become self-reliant in the post academic environment, i.e. “Real World”. It gave me the confidence and skills to go out and learn new language or framework on my own. The classes and assignments, taught me to appreciate the logic behind the projects; instead of worrying only about the syntax of the language your working in. The languages and frameworks that Coding House has taught to be proficient in include HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, Angular.js, Node, Ruby on Rails, Meteor, amongst many more.

In conclusion, I am now able to utilize the same work ethic that I have been using my whole life, but I am now equipped with the skills to go out into the world and make the money that this work ethic warrants!